Falling for Prague: Kolaches, Kafka and one very old castle (no, not that one)
The Czech Republic has always been on the cutting edge of culture — and it still is.
Prague is a place I’d never thought very much about until my friends Mel and Dave moved there eight years ago.
They are the Austin expats behind Strong Sense of Place, a literary travel podcast that launched in 2020, just before the pandemic made armchair travelers out of all of us. (Their new season starts on Friday!)
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I met Mel when she was writing a crazy popular Paleo blog called Well Fed from their little bungalow in South Austin. I interviewed her for a story at the Statesman, and we hit it off and started what I thought would be mostly a professional acquaintanceship.
But after a number of breakfast meetings where we started dishing about more than food, we began a bonafide friendship. Then, she and Dave announced they were leaving Austin to make their dreams of living in Europe come true.
Womp, womp.
Amazing for them. A bummer for the rest of us. Or so I thought.
I moved on with my life; they started building theirs anew in one of Europe’s most historic cities.
That was 2016, but at some point, we started connecting again over social media and then a fun little app called Voxer, which allows you to send voice messages. Mel and I started chatting again, despite the time difference.
It seems like our friendship picked up right where we left off.
And friendships are like seeds. When you water and tend them little by little over a long period of time, you can’t be surprised when they grow into a tree.
That’s how I found myself sipping Aperol spritzes with them on a boat overlooking the city’s famed castle just a few weeks ago.
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